Card file tray and compressor



Aug. 14, 1962 R. L. MYERS CARD FILE TRAY AND COMPRESSOR INVENTOR.

Original Filed Oct. 19, 1956 United Stre s 3,049,126 CARD FILE TRAY AND COMPRESSOR Raymond L. Myers, Vestal, N.Y., assignor to Ray Myers gorporation, Endicott, N.Y., a corporation of New ork Continuation of application Ser. No. 617,176, Oct. 19, 1956. This application Aug. 17, 1959, Ser. No. 837,314 2 Claims. (Cl. 129-28) This invention relates to card file trays, and more particularly to a construction which provides for supporting a card compressor on a single side wall of the tray.

The card file tray construction set forth and claimed in my co-pending application Serial No. 617,174 filed October 19, 1956, and now US. Patent #2,895,485, has a bottom and only one side connected with two ends and so arranged that cards may be filed on either a long or a short edge and removed directly laterally from the tray. That tray, as well as one having two parallel side walls according to the standard construction, may require a compressor to hold the cards in place for any position of the tray whether resting on a long bottom, a narrow side or a comparatively small end surface.

One object of this invention is to provide a tray construction in which the compressor is mounted on a single side wall and is so arranged as to hold cards properly compressed whether supported on an end, a side wall or on the tray bottom.

A further object of the invention is to provide a construction in which a compressor is carried on one side wall only and without reference to an opposite side wall, so that the adjustment of the compressor involves less friction and may be more readily accomplished.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a card file tray having a single compressor mounted on one side wall only and which occupies less lateral space than if the compressor were mounted on both side walls and less vertical space than if it were mounted on a false bottom structure.

Referring to the drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of a file card tray having two side walls, one high and the other low;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary detail in perspective of the front end of the tray;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of the high side wall;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section through the compressor slide and sidewall;

FIG. 5 is a detail, partly broken away, showing a tray mounted on one end and the cards held in position on the compresser;

FIG. 6 is a similar view of the tray standing on its other end and showing the cards held in position beneath the compressor;

FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrammatic views illustrating variout positions of a tray having only one side wall carrying the compressor;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary perspective detail of the front end of a tray, with parts removed;

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view of the parts of FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a section on the line 1111 of FIG. 3.

In accordance with this invention, a tray of desired shape and construction is provided with a track on only one side wall and a compressor is mounted only on that single track. The tray shown in FIG. 1 comprises a bottom 10, a front wall 11 and a rear frame or wall 12 which are connected to a single side wall 14. The tray bottom 10 has a width sufiicient to accommodate the long edge of a group of cards filed in the tray, while the side 3,049,126 Patented Aug. 14, 1962 ice wall 14 is merely high enough to support the short edges of the cards when the tray is carried with that side wall 14 at the bottom. Thus, the tray may serve for cards mounted either on their long or their short edges and so obviate the necessity for providing two different sizes of trays to carry cards in the two positions. For certain types of card filing, the tray may be constructed as shown in FIG. 2 in which a second low side wall 15 is suitably connected to the ends. The second side wall is preferably low, as shown in the figures, to provide greater acsess to the cards. This low Wall serves especially as a support for one side of the bottom edge of a card tilted at an angle in a location identifying position.

In accordance with my invention, the single side wall 14 is provided with a slideway or track extending longitudinally and horizontally for supporting a slidable compressor. This slideway may be a single piece of sheet metal bent to form a central U-portion 17 welded to the wall 14 and two side flanges 18 having their outer faces arranged in the same plane and which are spaced from the inner opposed surface of the plate 14 forming the wall. The cards are intended to engage the flanges 18 and a flange 19 formed by curling the top edge of the wall 14 inwardly and downwardly so that the exposed surface of the flange 19 lies in the plane of the flanges 18 and thus aids in supporting the cards when the tray is turned on its side.

The compressor may be of various constructions, but I prefer to use the construction shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, which is described and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 617,177 filed on October 19, 1956, now US. Patent 2,924,220 of February 9, 1960. That compressor comprises a standard 20 of sheet metal which is integrally connected to a U-shaped slide plate 21 having inwardly curved end portions providing flanges 22 which fit and slide relative to the under sides of the track plates 18. The standard 20 is U-shaped for strength (see FIG. 3) and provided with an in-turned flange 24 which rests on and is welded to the slide plate 21. The edges of the open side of the U-shaped standard 20 are rigidly welded to the flanges 71 of a card compressor plate 25 which provides a plane surface arranged at a required angle to engage the face of the adjacent file card. This plate 25 is preferably arranged at an angle slightly less than such as 87, relative to the walls 18 and 19 defining the card support, and the plate slopes towards the cards so that the outer end of the plate 25 provides a greater pressure against the cards than does the inner end of the plate which is next to the slide 21. The inner surface of the end wall 11 of the tray which opposes this slightly inclined plate is arranged at 90 to the surfaces 18 and 19 of the tray, so that the slight inclination of the plate 25 is sufficient to give a clamping pressure against the outer portions of the stack of cards.

In order to clamp the plate 25 against the cards with the desired compressive action, I have provided a ratchet and pawl operated by a lever (FIGS. 3 and 4). This comprises a rack 30 attached to or formed on the lower face of the U-shaped slideway piece of the tray. It may be made by cutting out U-shaped tooth grooves in a bar and Welding the latter on a horizontal face of the U. The teeth of the rack bar have vertical faces facing toward the front of the tray or in the direction of movement of the compressor to compress the cards. The standard is held in an adjusted position relative to the rack bar by means of a rocking pawl or a tooth 35 formed as a lateral projection on the end of a rod 36 which extends horizontally lengthwise of the standard 20 and on the inside thereof. This rod 36 is mounted at-the outer end in the pivot hole 37 in the inwardly bent flange 38 which is formed as an integral part of the standard 20. A further flange 39 (FIG. 3) is bent inwardly from a central portion of the standard and it forms an intermediate pivotal support for the rod 36. The end of the rod near the pawl 35 is mounted in an elongated vertical slot 40 which extends through the flange 24 and the adjacent slide plate 21. The lower end of the slot 40 is aligned with the two bearing holes in the flanges 38 and 39. The resilient steel rod 36 has suflicient flexibility so that it may be bent upwardly in that slot, but it is urged downwardly by a coiled tension spring '42 secured to the standard 20, which causes the pawl 35 to engage the rack teeth as required.

A pivoted handle lever 45 is provided with a curved edge 46 which serves as a hand grip. The handle is fixed at its lower end permanently to the rod 36, as by having a portion of the plate 45 wrapped around the rod (FIG. 3) and welded in place at 47. This rod 36 thus forms a pivot for the handle lever 45. The U-shaped standard plate 20 is cut away at its right hand end 72 or terminates at the left of this lever 45, so that the lever may be fastened to the rod 36 and be rotated manually. The handle 45 has a flange 48 projecting at right angles therefrom which has its inner edge 49 adapted to be brought into engagement with the rear of the wall 25 when in an end clamping position. This limits the handle motion.

In its operation, the lever handle 45 is thrown towards the left in FIG. 3 into a card releasing position, and this causes the end of the pawl 35 to pivot about the tooth space in the rack bar 30 and move the compressor plate away from the cards. The vertical slot 40 permits the rod 36 to bend upwardly as the pawl is swung, but the spring 42 holds the pawl in its pivotal relation with the rack. Free movement of the compressor standard is permitted by swinging the pawl into a substantially horizontal position after the rod 36 has returned into contact with the bottom of the slot. After the compressor has been moved up against the file cards, the lever 45 may be moved forward towards the compressor plate and through a short distance to swing the pawl 35 into engagement with one of the teeth of the rack bar. When the lever 45 is swung still further toward the plate 25, the pawl 35 passes through a dead center position perpendicular to the rack, and the rod 36 is thereby bent upwardly in extending flange 58 in line with the side flange 53. Its front downwardly curled portion terminates in an upwardly extending part 59 arranged to provide a smooth hand hold. The U-shaped part 55, as shown in FIG. 9, has its front edge 60 arranged at a small angle, such as 5 more than ,a right angle relative to the bottom of the tray, so that as indicated in FIG. 6 the tray may he stood on the base formed by the portions 51, 57 and 60 which lie in an unobstructed plane in front of the hand hold member 59. As shown in FIG. 10, the end wall 11 is U-shaped and terminates in a vertical inner wall 62 against which the cards lie in contact. The wall parts 11 r and 62 are flanged and welded to the bottom 10 of the the slot 40 against the tension of the coiled spring 42. I

When the hand lever is moved forwardly towards the right to a point where the edge 49 of the flange 48 engages the face 25, the pawl which has remained in the same tooth groove is urged by the manual swinging of the lever and the force of the spring 42 to thrust the the pawl 35 is moved rearwardly to a horizontal position away from the rack bar.

The constructional details of the front wall 11 are shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. The side wall may be integral with the bottom, as made by bending a single sheet metal piece into a right angle at the corner therebetween. The U-shaped tray structure has a low side wall 15 formed by further shaping the bottom to form an upstanding flange. The bottom portion 10 (FIG. 9) curls upwardly and rearwardly at 51 and terminates in an upstanding flange 52 which cooperates with a further side flange 53 formed on the side wall 50 to provide a space between the flanges and the front wall portion 11 within which a label card may be mounted. The side wall 50 is shown as having a U-shaped tfront portion 55 which is inturned at its edge to provide the flange 53. An inwardly and horizontally extending lug or flange '56 secured to the side wall 50 serves to support a handle portion 57 formed of a piece of metal shaped as shown in FIG. 10 but omitted from FIG. 9. part 57 has a downwardly tray. It will be appreciated that other constructional teatures may be employed in the tray, since the primary invention relates to the side wall support of the compressor and wherein that side wall is rigidly secured both to the bottom and to the open frame 12 and the front wall portion shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.

The primary feature of this invention involves mounting the compressor only on the single side wall 14, so that if the tray is held in the position of FIG. 1, the compressor is supported as a cantilever from that wall. The grooved slideways 22 of the compressor are held in place by the flanges 18 of the slideway, which is welded to the wall 14 of the tray. The bottom edge of the compressor in that position does not touch the bottom 10 of the tray, and there is no friction between these two parts. When the tray is stood on the side 14 in the'position shown in FIG. 7, the compressor does not engage the vertical wall 10 (formerly the bottom of the tray) and it is freely movable in the same manner as when the tray is held in the position of FIG. 8. The cards in the FIG. 7 position rest on the flanges 1'8 and wall flange 1'9, and in the 'FIG. 8 position they rest on the bottom 10'. 7

It will be noted, with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, that the two end walls 11 and 12 are arranged at an angle slightly greater than relative to the bottom 10 of the tray. A suitable angle is and the two ends are preferably arranged at the same angle. This angle is such that the tray will tilt backwards and thus urge the cardstowards the bottom wall 10 irrespective of which end 11 or 12 is employed as the support for the tray. Thus, for both substantially vertical positions of the tray, the cards cannot slide forward out of the tray.

The compressor and the end wall 11 may have parallel opposed faces, or the compressor face may be inclined slightly, such as at an angle of 87 more or less relative to the tray bottom. The compressor issubstantially perpendicular to the bottom 10 and parallel to the inner face of end wall 11 which is shaped to provide that'near parallelism. Hence, the cards are urged towards the bottom wall 10, whether they rest on the compressor or on the inner face of the end wall 11. This arrangement of the compressor on a side wall is primarily for the purpose of mounting the cards on either their long or their short edges, as explained. Thus, it is feasible to use the tray in the position of FIG. 7 in which the cards are supported vertically on the slideway flanges 18, and the cards may be removed through both the wide and narrow open portions .of the tray, as is apparent. If the tray is laid on its bottom 10, as shown in FIG. 8, the cards are supported on the inner face of the bottom and may be readily removed.

By mounting the compressor on a narrow side wall of the tray, I may use a shallower tray for the same size of cards and so require less of the expensive cabinet space for storing the trays. Also, less width of tray is required for mounting the compressor on one wall only than if it were supported by runways on both of the walls. This arrangement is particularly valuable since it permits a single size and shape of tray to support cards on either their short or their long edges, so that the single tray will satisfy all of the requirements. Thus, only a single shape and size compressor is required for the two card positions. The tray made in accordance with this invention has a wide horizontal bottom, a narrow vertical side wall and two vertical front and rear end walls rigidly connected together and forming a card space in which cards are mounted with their edges extending substantially the length of the inner faces of the end walls. The narrow side wall has a slideway or track formed of a double flanged metal piece which extends longitudinally and substantially the length of the Wall. A slide having flanges mating with the track is movably mounted thereon, and a compressor standard is rigidly secured to the slide. This standard extends over the bottom like a cantilever, and the compressor plate, which is arranged either vertically or slightly tilted toward the front end wall at its top, extends substantially the entire distance between its sup porting side wall and a plane defining the opposite outer edges of cards mounted in the card space, so that the compressor plate and the opposed front end wall plate may compress the cards therebetween throughout substantially their entire cross section area, so that the cards are not permitted to warp or become distorted in shape. The upper flanged inner face 19 of the side wall and the compressor track 18 provide an unobstructed support in a plane for the outer end edges of the cards, so that the cards cannot fall out readily when mounted thereon. The ends of the tray have each an outside unobstructed face portion lying in a plane which serves as a base on which the tray may be stood on its end. The bases formed by these two ends are arranged at substantially the same angle, which is either 90 or slightly greater relative to the tray bottom, so that the tray may be stood on either end and, if desired, at a slight inclination which insures that the cards are urged toward the bottom 10 of the tray when in that vertical position. This insures that cards may be inserted into the tray when it is stood on its front end and thereafter may be removed in the same serial order when the tray is reversed to stand on its opposite end.

The primary feature of this invention relates to the compressor which is supported on one wall only and extends horizontally over the bottom. The tray may be supported on its wide bottom or in certain cases supported on the outer side of the side wall, in which case the compressor is substantially vertical. This construction makes it possible to use the tray in any one of four positions with the cards adequately clamped against the end wall. Moreover, the tray has handles on its opposite ends, and these are preferably arranged so that the tray may be carried horizontally in a two-handed fashion, or it may be suspended vertically by gripping either handle. The

rear end handle is preferably shaped as a rectangular frame fashioned from a rod and having two hand gripping portions at right angles to each other, so that either the long or the short handle portion may be grasped and the tray suspended accordingly. The two handles of the open frame forming the rear end wall are arranged at right angles and each is ofi center relative to the horizontal center of the tray so that the tray may be suspended therefrom and the cards are urged towards the opposite side or bottom wall depending on which handle is grasped.

It will now be appreciated that various modifications may be made in this construction and that other types of compressor may be employed for mounting on the side wall provided they are capable of being mounted with their slideways on the side wall as indicated herein. Hence, the above disclosure is to be interpreted as setting forth the principles and a preferred embodiment of the invention and not as imposing limitations on the appended claims.

This case is a continuation for my copending application Serial #617,176 filed October 19, 1956, which has been abandoned.

I claim:

1. A card file tray comprising rigidly connected walls forming a substantially smooth bottom, two opposed front and rear end walls, a high side wall having a height substantially that of the end walls for supporting cards thereon, a low side wall opposed to and materially lower than said high side wall which is high enough to engage the lower side edges of the cards and hold them against an accidental lateral movement and to support cards thereon in an angularly raised and laterally displaced position but which provides for ready lateral access to and removal of the cards in the tray, whereby the tray is substantially open opposite to the high side wall, said walls providing a space for cards having their horizontal edges mounted on the bottom and arranged for removal of the cards both vertically and laterally relative to the bottom, a horizontal U-shaped compressor track secured at its medial web portion to the high side wall and having arms projecting inwardly of the inner side of the said high wall, said arms terminating in laterally extending oppositely directed flanges parallel to and spaced inwardly from the high side wall and having their exposed faces lying in a plane, said high side wall having a narrow continuous flange projecting inwardly and downwardly over the bottom, and the innermost portions of said side wall flange and the outer faces of the track flanges lying in a common plane for supporting cards edgewise thereagainst and out of edge contact with the side wall, a vertical substantially U-shaped slide movably mounted to interfit with and slide horizontally on the flanges of the track and suspended therefrom, a standard rigidly mounted at one end only on said slide and supported as a cantilever above the tray bottom, a compressor plate having a vertical card engaging face substantially perpendicular to said track flanges, said plate being supported only by said standard and overhanging the tray bottom throughout substantially the horizontal width thereof, the inner face of the front end wall and said compressor plate face being substantially parallel and arranged to compress cards therebetween, a horizontal locking rack separate from the compressor track which is mounted on the high side wall, and a lock on the standard which releasably engages said locking rack for securing the compressor plate rigidly in a card compressing position when the lock is held fixed by said locking rack.

2. A card file tray according to claim 1 in which the outermost portions of each end wall lie in a plane and form an unobstructed supporting base and the plane of each base forms an obtuse angle with the bottom which is such that the tray may be stood on either end with the center of gravity of the tray lying between vertical planes from the edges of the base, the inner face of the front wall and the card engaging face of the compressor plate being each perpendicular to the bottom so that the cards supported between said faces are urged towards the bottom when the tray is stood on end.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 412,625 Jewell Oct. 8, 1889 1,441,465 Welham Jan. 9, 1923 1,929,095 Hutchings Oct. 3, 1933 2,013,153 Hunter Sept. 3, 1935 2,336,572 Schuessler Dec. 14, 1943 2,585,612 Abrahamson Feb. 12, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 645,805 Great Britain Nov. 8, 1950 

